Soundoff for April 25

Hey, didn't we just hear from City Council two weeks ago that the council is concerned about big-box buildings in Steamboat? What do the council members think a 50,000-square-foot building is going to look like on Lincoln Avenue? It will be a big ugly wart on our main street downtown.

Not for tourist towns

The articles about government buildings staying downtown are written for the everyday towns, not tourist towns. How many times have you visited a courthouse while you're on vacation? Hey, I'm going to Moab this weekend; maybe I'll go visit the courtrooms.

County should listen

It is absolutely paramount that the county commissioners take a step backward, take a deep breath and listen to the residents of Steamboat Springs who realize that the downtown is so valuable to our city. Most likely, the public comment the commissioners received during their public meetings was given by a vocal minority. Please, county commissioners, take a step back.

Montessori classes

I'm annoyed by Montessori parent Tony Requist's comment (April 17) that he was "very disappointed" in the recent decision to create one Montessori class at Strawberry Park next year instead of two.

I suggest he be a bit more gracious. Huge efforts are being made to start the one class this fall and an interested teacher has yet to be found. Strawberry Park is one of the best schools in the state and I am one SPE parent who feels it is being unnecessarily messed with. The Montessori strand is being forced on the community by a small group of people who never bothered to come see how well our existing elementary schools work and how many Montessori-like methods are used. And I know there is concern among SPE parents and teachers about the very real possibility that we will be losing a teacher and getting bigger class sizes because of Montessori.

No drop-off center?

Does the city of Steamboat Springs have a drop-off center for natural composting materials? Seems a waste to have to put them in the garbage to be hauled off by waste management. A site should be established, perhaps over at the Transit Center past the playground.

Yes on big-box size cap

Yes, the city should include a size cap on buildings in its big-box retail ordinance. But we also should look at other ways to keep the big boxes from coming to our town.

Executive session

The School Board needs to clean up its act. This is twice now on controversial topics -- Montessori and the Knowledge and Skills Based Pay Plan -- where they have adjourned to executive session and basically told the people at the meeting to go away, that the meeting was done. And then after executive session, the board has opened the public meeting again and discussed things without the public there and no note taker.

They need to record the meetings, so that we don't have to rely on a human note taker. They should not open public sessions after executive sessions without indicating so on the agenda. Clean up your act. Be above board. Don't act like you are hiding something.